RICHMOND, Va. — The City of Richmond's Water Treatment Plant has experienced its third water issue in five months, prompting questions about the reliability of the city's water system and when residents can expect consistent service.
In the latest water issue, the city said sediment from the James River caused filters to clog at the water treatment plant on Tuesday, leading to a drop in water pressure for some residents.
The city issued a boil water advisory for parts of Richmond as a result.
During a city council meeting on Wednesday, Councilwoman Kenya Gibson (3rd District) asked Scott Morris, the new head of Richmond's Department of Public Utilities, if it was normal for a city to have so many issues with delivering safe drinking water to its residents.
“Is it normal, is it unusual that a city would have so many issues with being able to deliver safe drinking water to its residents? “ Gibson asked.
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While Morris did not directly answer that question, Joel Paulsen, a licensed professional engineer with over 20 years of experience designing water systems for municipalities, provided insight.
"I wouldn't say it is completely out of the ordinary for certain events like this to occur. It does seem strange that so many events have happened in such a short amount of time to one particular plant," Paulsen said.
In early January, a power outage at the water treatment plant caused city residents to lose drinkable water for nearly a week.
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Then in April, the city revealed higher-than-normal levels of fluoride got into the water.
"That is not typically normal. In most systems, you might have those types of events happen maybe once every couple of years, maybe once a decade, so to have so many happen in such a short amount of time would indicate to me that there is either old and faulty equipment that needs to be replaced, or additional training or internal procedures that need to be looked at," Paulsen said.
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Morris said the city has not yet identified the root cause of why the filters clogged in this most recent incident.
When asked if five months is enough time to change the culture and improve training and operating procedures, Paulsen acknowledged the complexity of the situation.
"I think you make a good point there. There does need to be some time to change these things because they are complex," Paulsen said. "There are a lot of different moving parts at a water plant, and a lot of staff members that are responsible for different procedures and systems that are taking place at the water plant."
Morris told the council that improvements will take time.
"I think there are a lot of improvements we can do, the City of Richmond, to improve the way we operate," Morris said. "It's a long road ahead in my opinion. We have to do training, we have to develop these SOPs we've been developing."
Paulsen encouraged residents to continue asking questions about what happened and whether they should be concerned moving forward.
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